A Delhi court has framed charges against 10 accused in the 2020 Northeast Delhi anti-Hindu riots, observing that their main objective was to create fear in the minds of the victims belonging to the Hindu community and threaten them to leave the country by looting and burning their properties, reports Live Law.
The accused identified as Mohd Shahnawaz, Mohd Shoaib, Shahrukh, Rashid, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvez, Mohd Faisal, Rashid alias Monu and Mohd Tahir have been charged Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 436 (Mischief by fire), 452 (House-trespass with preparation to assault), 454 (Lurking house-trespass), 392 (robbery), 427 (mischief) read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly) of IPC.
Finding credibility in the statements of the witnesses, the Additional Sessions Judge Virendra Bhat observed: “From the utterances of the rioters comprising the unlawful assembly, as mentioned by these witnesses in their statements, it is limpid that the object of the assembly was to create fear & panic in the minds of the people belonging to Hindu Community, threaten them to leave the country and to loot as well as burn their properties”.
The Judge made the remarks while hearing a case filed by one Jagdish Prasad, who claimed that rioters had set fire to his son’s auto spare parts shop during the massive riot that was planned and executed in Delhi in February 2020 to target Hindus on the name protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Jagdish Prasad had claimed in the FIR that the fanatic Muslim mob had thrown petrol bombs into his son’s shop, causing the entire shop to burn down. He added that he and his two brothers had somehow escaped through the back gate and saved their lives.
No ground to disbelieve the witnesses, observes Delhi court while framing charges against 10 accused in Northeast Delhi anti-Hindu riots
The complainant, his son, nephew, and three police officers were all eyewitnesses in the case, according to the prosecution, who further stated before the court that all the witnesses had specifically named the 10 accused persons in their testimony. The eyewitnesses, according to the prosecution, claimed that the accused were present in the crowd that looted, damaged, and set fire to the complainant’s shop during the February 2020 North-est Delhi anti-Hindu riots.
The Court was of the prima facie view that there was no ground to disbelieve the version of the witnesses. “They have taken the names of only three accused whom they already knew and had seen them in the mob. If they had any intention to falsely implicate any person in this case, they would have taken the names of all the accused and not only of the three accused. This indicates the truthfulness of their statements and makes their statements trustworthy,” the Court said.
The court further stated that there were ten accused in this case, each of whom was recognised by different witnesses. “All the six prosecution witnesses, who have identified the accused, have given identical versions of the riotous incident involved in this case. All of them corroborate each other’s version in entirety,” the Court said as it framed charges against the 10 accused.
Court frames charges against Shahrukh Pathan
It may be noted that on December 8, the Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Delhi court had also framed charges against the 2020 Delhi riot accused Shahrukh Pathan who had fired bullets at head constable Deepak Dahiya during Anti-Hindu riots in Northeast Delhi.
Other than Pathan, the court framed charges on Kaleem Ahmad, Ishtiyak Malik alias Guddu, Shamim and Abdul Shehzad.
Terming it not an ordinary case of individuals or groups committing unlawful acts, the court said that “these riots are of such a nature as has not been witnessed since the Sikh Riots of 1984.”
